me to
have been accomplished in a few brief hours. Here, where I stood
but yesterday, a happy family were met together; and now, death and
misfortune had laid waste the spot, and save the cold walls, nothing
marked it as a human habitation. What had become of them? where had
they gone to? Had they fled from the blood-stained hands of the cruel
soldiery, or were they led away to prison? These were the questions
constantly recurring to my mind. And the French officer, too,--what of
him? I felt the deepest interest in his fate. Poor fellow! he looked so
pale and sickly; and yet there was something both bold and manly in his
flashing eye and compressed lip. He was doubtless one of those Darby
alluded to. What a lot was his! and how little did my own sorrows seem,
as I compared them with his houseless, friendless condition!

As my thoughts thus wandered on, a dark shadow fell across the gleam of
moonlight that lit up the ruined cabin. I turned suddenly, and saw the
figure of a man leaning against the doorpost. For a second or two fear
was uppermost in my mind, but rallying soon, I called out, "Who 's
there?"

"'T is me. Darby M'Keown!" said a well-known voice, but in a tone of
deepest sorrow. "I came over to have a look at the ould walls once
more."

"You heard it all, then. Darby?"

"Yes; they wor bringing the prisoners into Athlone as I left the town,
and I thought to myself you 'd maybe be hiding somewhere hereabouts. Is
the captain away? Is he safe?"

"The French officer? Yes, he escaped early in the business. I know he
must be far off by this time; Heaven knows which way, though."

"Maybe I could guess," said Darby, quietly. "Well, well! it 's hard to
know what 's best. Sometimes it would seem the will of God that we are
n't to succeed; and if we hadn't right on our side, it would not be easy
to bear up against such misfortunes as these."

There was a silence on both sides after these words, during which I
pandered them well in my mind.

"Come, Mister Tom!" said Darby, suddenly; "'tis time we were moving.
You 're not safe here no more nor others. Basset is looking for you
everywhere, and you 'll have to leave the neighborhood, for a while
at least. Your friend, the captain, too, is gone; his regiment marched
yesterday. So now make up your mind what to do."

"That's easily done, Darby," said I, attempting to seem at ease.
"Whichever is your road shall be mine, if you let me."

"Let you? Yes, with a hearty w